1. Rhetoric PPT

2. What is Rhetoric?
As Aristotle defined the term, “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” In other words, it is the art of finding ways to persuade an audience.

3. Where is Rhetoric used? Not just in speeches… Every essay
Political cartoon, photograph, advertisement
Documentary films (lighting, music, what to show, what to leave out, etc)

4. Types of Rhetoric Manipulative rhetoric Deceptive rhetoric
Civil and effective rhetoric
Receptive rhetoric
It is a part of our job as informed citizens and consumers to understand how rhetoric works so that we can be wary of manipulation or deceit, while appreciating effective and civil communication.

5. Rhetorical Triangle
The speaker is the person or group who creates a text. It is important to not only think of the speaker as a name, but to consider the description of the speaker. Who is the speaker of the farewell speech?
The audience is the listener, viewer, or reader of a text or performance, but it is important to note that there may be multiple audiences. Who is Lou Gehrig’s audience?
The subject is the topic. What is the subject of Gehrig’s speech?
Speaker: Sometimes, there is a slight difference between who the speaker is in real life and the role the speaker plays when delivering the speech.
Audience: When making rhetorical decisions, speakers ask what values their audiences hold, particularly whether the audience is hostile, friendly, or neutral, and how informed it is on the topic at hand.
Subject: Should not be confused with the purpose, which is the goal the speaker wants to achieve.

6. The Rhetorical Triangle
SPEAKER
TEXT
AUDIENCE
SUBJECT

7. The Rhetorical Triangle aka Aristotelian Triangle
Another important aspect of the rhetorical situation is the relationship among the speaker, audience, and subject. Why are these elements important? What is the relationship between these elements?

8. Let’s Practice!
Let’s read Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech with a partner. As you read, identify the occasion, context, and purpose of the speech.
Part 1: 5 minutes
Use post its to annotate the speech.
Identify the occasion, context, and purpose
Write words/lines that stood out to you as being effective.
Part 2: 5 minutes
Whole class discussion

9. Lou Gehrig Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert; also the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow; to have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins; then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology — the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Who wouldn’t feel honored to have roomed with such a grand guy as Bill Dickey? Sure, I’m lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something! When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something! When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter — that’s something! When you have a father and mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing! When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know! So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for! Thank you.

10. Rhetorical Triangle to Analyze Gehrig’s Speech
Speaker: baseball hero and ALS victim, Lou Gehrig
Audience: his teammates, fans in the stadium, fans listening on the radio, and also the teams he played against.
Subject: his illness, ALS, but also the lucky breaks that preceded his diagnosis.

11. TEXT: Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech
SPEAKER: baseball hero and ALS victim, Lou Gehrig
TEXT: Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech
SUBJECT: his illness, ALS, but also the lucky breaks that preceded his diagnosis.
AUDIENCE: : his teammates, fans in the stadium, fans listening on the radio, and also the teams he played against.

12. SOAPS S ubject O ccasion A udience P urpose S peaker
When analyzing the rhetorical situation of a piece, just remember to think about the following:
S ubject
O ccasion
A udience
P urpose
S peaker

13. Rhetorical Appeals

14. Three Rhetorical Appeals
Rhetorical Appeals are the tools a speaker uses to
persuade an audience.
Aristotle, the father of the Classical Argument model (that which we study in this class), identified three rhetorical appeals:
Ethos: credibility
Logos: reason
Pathos: emotion

15. Ethos
Speakers appeal to ETHOS to demonstrate that they are credible and trustworthy.
Think of a speech discouraging teenagers from drinking. How might a speaker make him/herself credible to an audience of teenagers?
Appeals to ethos often emphasize shared values between the speaker and the audience.

16. Let’s Practice!
Let’s look back at Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech… How does Gehrig appeal to ethos in his speech?

17. Lou Gehrig Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert; also the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow; to have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins; then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology — the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Who wouldn’t feel honored to have roomed with such a grand guy as Bill Dickey? Sure, I’m lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something! When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something! When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter — that’s something! When you have a father and mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing! When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know! So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I have an awful lot to live for! Thank you.

18. Automatic Ethos
In some cases, a speaker’s reputation immediately establishes ethos. We call this AUTOMATIC ETHOS. Gehrig is a baseball hero so he has automatic ethos with the audience of the speech, his fans.

19. The speaker’s ethos—expertise, knowledge, experience, sincerity, common purpose with the audience, or a combination of these factors—gives the audience a reason for listening to this person on the subject.

20. Speakers appeal to LOGOS, or reason, by offering clear rational ideas.
Appealing to logos means thinking logically—having a clear main idea and using specific details, examples, facts, statistics, or expert testimony to back it up.

21. How does one create a logical argument?
Creating a logical argument often involves defining the terms of the argument and identifying connections such as causality.
It can also require considerable research.
Evidence from expert sources and authorities, facts, and quantitative data can be very persuasive if selected carefully and presented accurately.

22. Let’s look back again at Lou Gehrig’s speech
Let’s look back again at Lou Gehrig’s speech. Though, at first glance, his speech may seem largely emotional, it is actually based on irrefutable logic. How does Gehrig make appeals to logos?

23. How does Gehrig appeal to logos?
Begins with a clear thesis statement:
“the luckiest man on the face of the earth”
Supports this thesis statement with two points:
The love and kindness he’s received in his seventeen years of playing baseball; and
A list of great people who have been his friends, family, and teammates in that time.

24. Concession and Refutation strengthens your own argument: it appeals to logos by demonstrating that you understand a viewpoint other than your own, you’ve thought through other evidence, and you stand by your view.

25. How else can a speaker appeal to logos?
CONCEDE and REFUTE
Acknowledge a counterargument: anticipate the objections or opposing views.
Your argument will be vulnerable if you ignore ideas that run counter to your own.
In acknowledging the counterargument, you agree (concede) that an opposing argument may be true or reasonable, but then you deny (refute) the validity of all or part of the argument.

26. How does Gehrig address a counterargument?
Gehrig concedes what some of his listeners may think: that is “bad break” is a cause for discouragement or despair.
Gehrig refutes this by saying that he has “an awful lot to live for!”

27. Pathos
PATHOS is an appeal to emotions, values, desires, and hopes, on the one hand, or fears and prejudices, on the other.
Although an argument that appeals exclusively to the emotions is by definition weak, an effective speaker or writer understands the power of evoking an audience’s emotions by using such tools as figurative language, personal anecdotes, and vivid images.

28. Let’s return again to Lou Gehrig’s speech.
What appeals to pathos does Gehrig make in his speech?
Uses first person (I)—reinforces the friendly sense that this is a guy who is speaking on his own behalf.
Chooses words with strong positive connotations.
Uses an image—”tower of strength”
Creates a powerful contrast between his horrible diagnosis and his public display of courage.

29. How else can a speaker appeal to pathos?
Use striking imagery—written and visual images
Use humor
Understand the needs and beliefs of the audience.

30. Combining Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
Most authors don’t rely on just a single type of appeal to persuade their audience; they combine these appeals to create an effective argument.

31. The appeals themselves are inextricably linked: if you lay out your argument logically, that will help to build your ethos. It is only logical to listen to an expert on a subject, so having ethos can help build a foundation for an appeal to logos. It is also possible to build your ethos based on pathos— for example, who better to speak about the pain of losing a loved on than someone who has gone through it?

32. Persona
There is a difference between who the speaker/author is in real life and the role the speaker plays when delivering the message.
For example, Lou Gehrig is a baseball hero but he takes on a persona of a common, modest man to deliver his message effectively.

33. Resources
Shea, Renee H., Lawrence Scanlon, and Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of Composition, 2nd ed., Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.